Even gated, exclusive clubs hit by economy

BIG SKY, Mont. -- The Yellowstone Club, a cloistered and cosseted mountain retreat for the super-rich, helped define a style and an era with its creation in 1999.

BIG SKY, Mont. -- The Yellowstone Club, a cloistered and cosseted mountain retreat for the super-rich, helped define a style and an era with its creation in 1999.

The club had 340 members with a private ski mountain only a schuss away from $20 million vacation homes. It was the corner office and the executive suite of gated communities all in one -- an exemplar of exclusivity.

But the sense of refuge was an illusion. The global financial crises have stormed even these gilded confines: This month, the Yellowstone Club sought bankruptcy protection.

Other corners of the resort-economy West are taking punches.

The Tamarack Resort in Idaho, which opened in 2004 north of Boise, is operating in receivership after its owners defaulted on a $250 million loan. In Utah, the Promontory Club, a 7,224-acre ski and golf development near Park City, declared bankruptcy in March when the company defaulted on a $275 million loan.

The Yellowstone Club's troubles have been complicated by domestic entanglement. Tim Blixseth, the club's founder, and his wife, Edra, divorced this year, putting the club in her control. Edra Blixseth then filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Many people also know someone whose fortunes are tied to the financial engines that made this corner of Montana's economy go in recent years -- wealth, vacation housing and tourism.

"It's kind of like a double-edged sword for a lot of people around here," said Greg Thomas, a 31-year-old construction worker from Bozeman, an hour north of Big Sky. "It's pretty grotesque and ridiculous, but at the same time, a lot of people depend on going up there for jobs."